Vigilance
by VoiceintheShadows
Summary: Aang is having problems with Toph's tedious training and Toph reacts in a way that Aang never saw coming. Taang oneshot, formerly Will of the Earth Grace of the Wind.


Disclaimer: I own nothing, neither Avatar nor the work of horror by Edogawa Rampo…still own nothing.

"Speech"; _'Thought'_; Narration. The world moves forward.

**Will of the Earth Grace of the Wind**

It was a dark and cloudy night as Aang walked down the lonely stretch of road that lead back to camp. Now any other Bender, especially the Avatar, would normally scoff at walking alone in such conditions but luckily Aang had the excuse of being a twelve-year-old with a quarter of the world out to get him. Every twig snapping and owl-cat hooting caused him to spin around and take a defensive stance every few seconds.

He cursed under his breath for his current state of weakness. His whole body ached from training with Toph. She dragged him out into the mountains at sunrise for "Vigilance Training" as she called it, which turned out to be twelve straight hours of sneak attacks as he ran through the forest trying to escape back to camp. He ended up collapsing and getting buried up to his neck under a small mountain of rubble. "Get out on your own and you'll have earned dinner." Toph huffed as she walked away. Fortunately for Aang, two hikers from the local village had found him within the hour that Toph had abandoned him. They had dug him out and brought him to their home, thinking that he was a war orphan who had been caught in a landslide.

"It was nice of them to feed me and everything, but did they _have_ to tell ghost stories during dinner? Maybe I should have spent the night instead of walking back by myself. It's not like anyone but Katara would notice I was gone and worry about me." Aang stopped for a moment and a smile crept over his face. "Maybe I owe Toph after all."

Aang practically floated the rest of the way to camp as he let his imagination wander. '_A teary-eyed Katara sitting over a dying fire leaps up as I enter the campsite. She grabs me and pulls me into a hug, scolding me and exclaiming how worried she was over Toph coming back alone and my being gone for so long. I try to apologize but she puts a delicate finger to my lips to silence me. She whispers, "I understand. It's not your fault," as she slowly leans her face in closer to mine and-'_

THUD!

Aang tripped over a rock. He jumped to his feet, fully prepared to kick it to the North Pole but decided to be the bigger man and walk away from the offending piece of earth. He stumbled into the clearing that the group was currently using as a campsite and noted with disappointment that no one had waited up for him.

"Well so much for that fantasy." Aang muttered as he walked over to Appa, stopping as something had caught his attention. Toph's special chair was still up. It was rather large and made of smooth stone squares that could shift in the dirt with Earthbending. Toph had said that the best way to cool down from Bending was to kick back and find just the right angle to let all the joints in her body pop. Aang always thought it sounded painful and no one dared touch Toph's creation, at least not after Sokka got curious and ended up as a chair sandwich.

Peering over to Toph's tent, the young Airbender gathered enough courage to defy his better judgment and sit in Toph's clever invention. He sat down and tried shifting it backward. Slowly and steadily he stretched his tired back until, CRACK! Aang's eyes burst open for a moment and then slowly closed. His whole body finally began to relax and unwind. Aang smiled and thought about falling asleep, fully prepared to deal with the consequences in the morning after a good night's rest.

"Comfortable, Twinkle Toes?" Two pale arms shot out of the chair to grab his chest and stomach. Aang screamed and leaped twenty feet in the air before making an uncharacteristically bad landing. "Jeez," Toph said as her face broke through the back of the chair, "It's great to know that the world's greatest hope screams like a little girl."

"Toph! Why did you do that?" Aang hissed as he got up and brushed himself off.

"Vigilance. You need to be prepared for an attack from anywhere at anytime." Toph stated as she broke the rest of her body free. "Besides, you had it coming for ditching me back there."

"What?"

"Remember? During training? I left you under those rocks while I came back here to get us dinner but I returned to find you nowhere in sight. Face it, Airhead, you abandoned me back there."

"ME? Abandon YOU?"

"I'm glad you admit it."

"No! I mean YOU abandoned ME!"

"Yeah, and while you were off goofing around somewhere, I was searching through the entire mountain. _And_ I stayed up half the night sitting here worried about you." Toph huffed turning to her Earth Tent.

Aang was seriously considering breaking half of his vows of peace when his face suddenly changed from irate to confused. "Wait, what did you just say?"

"I said, 'I spent half the night waiting for you.'"

"No, you definitely said 'worried.' Toph, do you-" Aang was cut short as Toph shot a rock at his chest, which he easily deflected with his right hand and threw behind him. He swiftly spun the rest of the way around, ready to counter whatever assault Toph had planned. But the next sensation he felt wasn't a rumble from the earth being broken around his feet, rather a soft, sweet pressure on his lips. Aang had enough time to look down at black hair and a green headband before a pillar shot at his stomach with enough force to send him flying back into the forest.

"Vigilance, Twinkle Toes, means never letting your guard down." Toph smiled as she turned to her tent.

… … … … … … … … … … … …

Inspired by "The Human Chair" by Edogawa Rampo


End file.
